Women and heat stress: A silent risk in the climate-exposed workforce

This article builds on the foundation established in Protection from occupational heat stress amid rising global temperatures (Main, 2025), extending the discussion to highlight sex-specific vulnerabilities and the urgent need for inclusive occupational heat policies. Recent studies show that biological sex plays a meaningful role in how the body responds to heat. (5-7) This means that current workplace protections, often designed around male physiology, may not adequately safeguard half the workforce. As highlighted in earlier work on occupational heat stress, (8) the impacts of climate change on workers' health are already significant, and more inclusive approaches are urgently needed.